Laura (Lee Ellen) Johnson
I Help Accomplished Women Make the Move from Proven Leader to Enterprise Leader
By the time you reach the senior levels of your career, capability is rarely the issue.
You've built the teams. Solved the problems. Led the transformations. Delivered when the stakes were high.
And yet, the closer you get to the C-suite, the less advancement is determined by performance alone.
It depends on how your leadership is understood. Who knows your value. Who talks about you when you are not in the room. Do decision-makers see you as an exceptional functional leader or as someone ready to shape the direction of the enterprise?
That is where my work begins.
I work with accomplished women who know they are capable of more and are ready to become far more intentional about how they pursue it.
Together, we examine the whole leadership advancement picture:
✅️your executive identity
✅️the value you are known for
✅️the story others tell about you
✅️your visibility
✅️your strategic relationships and sponsorship
✅️your career positioning
✅️the opportunities you choose to pursue.
Because getting to the C-suite is not simply a better-resume problem. And it is certainly not about teaching talented women to become quieter, softer, more agreeable, or more like the leaders who came before them.
I learned that lesson personally.
Early in my own career in financial services, I was told I was too aggressive. I began to see how differently confidence, authority, directness, and ambition could be interpreted depending on who was demonstrating them.
That experience stayed with me. So did the questions it raised.
Over my career in corporate training and organizational development, leadership development, career strategy, and executive advisory work, I became increasingly interested in how talented people advance and why exceptional performance sometimes fails to translate into opportunity.
Today, that work comes together in The BRIDGE Program and my Identity → Influence → Integration approach.
Identity — Understand and articulate who you are as an enterprise leader and the value you bring.
Influence — Build the visibility, relationships, sponsorship, reputation, and executive presence that expand opportunity.
Integration — Step into broader authority, recognized and prepared to lead, influence, and succeed at the next level.
My perspective combines experience inside organizations with years spent advising executives navigating career decisions from the outside. I hold an MBA and am one of fewer than 25 Certified Master Personal Brand Strategists worldwide.
I believe in you! My role is to help you see your career more clearly. We focus on what you have already built, understand what may be standing between you and your next level, and create a deliberate strategy to close that gap.
You do not need to become someone else to reach the C-suite.
You need to make sure the right people understand the leader you already are and the leader you are ready to become.
Credentials & Experience
Laura Lee Ellen “Laura” Johnson, MBA
Founder & CEO, LLEJ Careers
Master Personal Branding Strategist / Executive Coach / Speaker / Writer
- 25+ years in leadership across corporate and nonprofit environments
- 18+ years in executive branding and career strategy coaching
- Certified Master Personal Branding Strategist (one of ~25 globally)
- Certified Digital Branding Strategist
- Certified Interview & Compensation Negotiation Coach
- Career Industry Authority with the Career Thought Leaders Consortium
- MBA, DePaul University
- 2 BAs, Psychology & Telecommunications, Michigan State University
- Coached and guided 1,000+ leaders
Strategic. Confidential. Direct. Compassionate.
My experience spans social systems, corporate environments, and executive-level advisory, enabling me to view leadership through structural, strategic, and human lenses simultaneously.
Certifications | Memberships | Recognition
Your Next Interview Deserves More Than Practice Questions
The Executive Interview Advantage helps experienced leaders prepare the positioning, stories, and proof points that make their value clear.